Rain falls steadily as the line outside FancyFree in Brooklyn grows. It is Sunday, 10am.
Dozens of fans draped in Arsenal red wait to enter the already full bar. Chants of “Arrr-senal” echo into the rainy New York City streets.
It is an hour before kick-off against Crystal Palace in their final Premier League match of the season. This game is a formality before the squad and staff can lift the trophy after a 22-year wait. Fans have been celebrating since last week when they secured the league title when second-placed Manchester City drew with Bournemouth.
“I’m feeling like I should have gotten here a lot earlier,” Arsenal fan Theresa Nasi says with a laugh, a gush of water pouring off her umbrella as she waits in line.
Fans queuing in the rain to get a glimpse of the Arsenal trophy lift. (Photo: Melanie Anzidei / The Athletic)
She eventually makes her way into the bar and jets to the back area, squeezing through the tight crowd.
Nasi was eager to meet her friends, other members of the Brooklyn Invincibles, the unofficial Arsenal supporters group that on Sunday drew the likes of New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani, filmmaker and New York super-fan Spike Lee and actor Jason Sudeikis to the Fort Greene establishment for hours of pure jubilation.
“It became a community and a family first, before it became a celebration,” Jason Andrew, a co-founder of the fan group, tells The Athletic.
“We had a lot of lows before we got to this high of highs. We’ve had years which we held each other during the mockery and the banter, and now we’re the ones laughing and smiling.
“It’s definitely a change of position from second to first. It took a while, but we got there.”
The Brooklyn Invincibles, founded around 2021, grew from Andrew and his fellow co-founders — Howard Grandison and Mosito Ramaili — wanting to create an inclusive, family-friendly space for other Black fans of the north London club.
When walking into bars around the U.S., Andrew described feeling like he “stood out like a sore thumb”. He felt this way even in England. Andrew, who is from South Norwood (very close to where the Crystal Palace game was played) and who once lived in a neighborhood near where Arsenal legend Ian Wright is from (Woolwich, south-east London, where Arsenal were originally formed in 1886), craved a safe space for fans of all backgrounds. He understood deeply the sport’s shortcomings for some of its loyal fans.
“If you look at the football space in general, it’s not welcoming,” says Andrew. “It’s great to be able to have a space in which you don’t have to know football to be validated — just being yourself is enough, and supporting the club is enough.”
The group’s early days consisted of Andrew, his young daughters and a couple of friends with their young children coming together to watch Arsenal. They would show up to a local bar at 7am on matchdays, with attendances growing slowly from nine to 12 fans to sometimes as many as 20 supporters. That growth persisted.
This season, the Brooklyn Invincibles repeatedly filled FancyFree to capacity, with more fans turning out as the Premier League title got closer. Group photos on South Elliott Place outside of 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks, Spike Lee’s production company next door to the bar, have become tradition. It wasn’t always like this, but the surge in interest speaks to the void that the fan group has filled.
Spike Lee and Zohran Mamdani were among the fans in attendance. (Photo: Moshood Aremu)
The celebrations on Sunday were vibrant. Fans wore Arsenal kits from various eras — representing current stars like Declan Rice, or Arsenal legend and current broadcaster Thierry Henry. There were large groups of friends taking up tables, couples singing together and even fans who came out on their own. Strangers became fast friends, especially when an inflatable trophy made its way through the bar. Everyone had the chance for their own ceremonial trophy lift.
Chants rang through the bar, and everyone responded in unison when Gabriel Jesus and Noni Madueke scored. When Crystal Palace scored, Arsenal fans responded by singing “Campeones! Campeones! Ole, ole, ole!” They were not fazed, because the league was already theirs.
When Lee shimmies through the crowd, squeezing through supporters, fans are also unfazed by the fan group regular.
Reactions are kept to a respectful whisper. Fans are less tame, however, when Mamdani sneaks into the bar through a side entrance with New York City’s First Lady, Rama Duwaji. The bar breaks out in chants of “Ohhh! Zoh-ran Mam-da-ni!” as he pushes his way to the back of the bar. By the 31st minute, Andrew guides Sudeikis and his family to the back near the other celebrities.
Spent my Sunday morning with the Brooklyn Invincibles for Arsenal’s match against Crystal Palace. Needless to say, the vibes were high. pic.twitter.com/ULhjckPPZ2
— Melanie Anzidei (@melanieanzidei) May 26, 2026
“We’re New Yorkers, so what?” Andrew says, with a laugh. “You see celebrities all the time. That means nothing. But the fact that people feel comfortable to bring their families, that to me is what means the most — when they’re bringing their significant others and their daughters, and the fact that we are a space where people can be people no matter what you do, that’s what matters to me.”
There is a moment when the Ted Lasso star stands in the heart of the crowd, taking photos with Arsenal fans. When Lee leaves, he makes one final quip to fans, “The Knicks are next!” Fans cheer. When the final whistle blows, the bar fills with Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York”, a fitting combination of the city’s sports cultures merging.
Celebrations quickly pour into the streets despite the inclement weather. Some fans have umbrellas. Most dance in the rain. Parents lift children dressed in Arsenal kits into the air. Champagne pops. Smiles are beaming.
Brooklyn Invincibles co-founder Jason Andrew with actor Jason Sudeikis. (Moshood Aremu)
Siblings Priya Ahluwalia and Ryan Eboh are among these fans, visibly ecstatic from their club’s historic season. Ahluwalia is in town from London, visiting her brother who lives on the Upper East Side. When Arsenal won the league last week, she was among the fans who flooded to the Emirates Stadium to celebrate their second-place curse being broken.
“It’s a club that I supported since I was born, but Arsenal are more than that,” Ahluwalia says. “It’s always been an inclusionary club. It’s always been in the forefront of everything. Arsenal women’s (club) have always been the best because they’ve been the most invested.
“It shows that being kind and having a positive, inclusive culture can make you win in a world where we’re more divided every day. It shows that inclusivity wins.”
Ahluwalia, a British designer, describes New York as her “second city”. She visits twice a year, and being with her brother this weekend fills her with pride. When she realized she would be in New York for Arsenal’s final match of the season, she felt sad initially because she felt she would miss out on the excitement of being in London. But on Sunday, she says, “I feel today that I was there.”
The Brooklyn bar was packed as fans waited for the post-match celebrations. (Moshood Aremu)
Eboh, who was born in east London but now lives in Manhattan, says repeatedly finishing second in the Premier League made the triumph this year that much sweeter.
“Why I love this club so much is (because) it’s, legit, the culture club,” Eboh says. “If you ask anybody that’s Black, honestly, it was tough back in the day, because a lot of football is a working-class thing, but it was a white working-class thing. It was Millwall. West Ham.
“But when Arsenal fielded the first Black team (with nine Black outfield players) it was a mental thing. It was a very inclusive club. You had Ian Wright, David Rocastle, Thierry Henry. I could only imagine (what that meant for) somebody that lived in the 80s living through really overt racism, seeing somebody that looks like you beating these white dudes (on the pitch). That’s why people love it.”
It’s also why the community created by Brooklyn Invincibles is so important.
Just before Arsenal won the league on Tuesday, Andrew was watching the Manchester City and Bournemouth match at home with his dad. As he watched the game unfold from his couch, the reality of winning the league began to set in.
“The moment I knew it was real, I knew that I needed to get down there,” Andrew says. He described how fans slowly began trickling to FancyFree.
Arsenal fans merged with fans of the New York Knicks, who were there for Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Cavaliers on Tuesday night. The Knicks, who on Monday reached their first NBA Finals for 27 years, after completing a sweep of the Cavaliers, had won that first game in overtime. Suddenly, fans of both clubs were celebrating together.
“It was the Knicks and Arsenal fans coming together — a merging of two different groups, and it was beautiful. Community comes out of that,” Andrew says. “There’s gonna be that tension of old New York (asking), ‘What’s this soccer stuff? Like, why you guys singing nursery rhymes?’” He laughs.
Many of Arsenal NYC-based fans are hoping the Knicks can win their championship too. (Melanie Anzidei / Getty Images)
He jokes how he had to explain the significance of what Arsenal had just done to Knicks fans who were not familiar with the EPL. He explained to them that what Arsenal accomplished was like winning the Eastern Conference finals in a four-game sweep. “Let us celebrate,” he remembers telling Knicks fans. “It’s only four in the afternoon.”
The celebrations for Arsenal have not stopped since, with the Gunners now eyeing their final test of the season. They will play Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League final on Saturday in Budapest. A group of fans from the Brooklyn Invincibles, including Nasi, will be traveling to London next week to catch the match from there, with plans to stay for Arsenal’s parade the following day.
As for next season? Andrew’s biggest hope is to get Wright to join in on the fun in Brooklyn. “Ian Wright has been a guiding light and a positive voice to keep people on side,” Andrew says. “I would love to have him, the guy who started off (this fandom) for a lot of us.”